Tone bar



Jan. 14, 1936. Q T, gc c L 2,27,93?

TONE BAR Filed July 20, 1933 Patented Jan. 14, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in tonebars the peculiarities of which will be hereinafter fully described andclaimed.

The present application is a continuation-inpart of my co-pendingapplication Serial No. 607,071, filed April 23, 1932, for Guitarattachments, and allowed Feb. 15, 1933, which has matured into PatentNo. 1,926,561, granted Sept. 12, 1933.

The main objects of my invention are to provide means first, for makingcontact of all the guitar strings with one fret and simultaneously ofone string with the next fret, to raise the tone of said string withoutaltering the tones of the other strings; second, for making contact ofall the strings with one fret and simultaneously of two strings with thenext fret while maintaining the tones of the other strings; third, forlowering the tone of said one, or two strings while maintaining thetones of the other strings; and fourth, for quickly alternating thehigher and lower tones of one, or two strings, while maintaining thetones of the other strings.

In the accompanying drawing in which like reference numerals indicatecorresponding parts,

Fig. 1 represents a plan view of a portion of the finger board of aHawaiian guitar with my tone bar tipped back;

Fig. 2, a perspective view of my tone bar;

Fig. 3, a side View of a portion of the finger board with my tone barcovering two frets;

Fig. 4, a similar view with the bar tipped back and the extension raisedas in Fig. 1, making the strings engage one fret under the body of thebar;

Fig. 5, lengthwise section of the extension and across the adjacent bodyportion; and

Fig. 6, a bottom view of Fig. 5.

A Hawaiian guitar has six strings tuned to major chords only, as used inHawaiian music as follows: 1st string E, 2nd string Ct, 3rd string A,4th string E, 5th string A, and 6th string E. The first three stringsconstitute the A-major chord; the other strings are duplicates of E andA. My said prior application showed means for quickly changing thetension of the second and third strings, or either string, and hence thecorresponding tone, to alter the chords of a Hawaiian guitar. The tonebar described in my present application enables the performer to altersuch chords at will. Thus he can play chords which cannot be obtained onthe usual Hawaiian guitar, viz. those chords which are not on theHawaiian guitar: all minor chords, all seventh chords, diminished andaugmented chords,-as more fully described in said prior application.

I provide a tone bar of steel or other suitable material, instead of theordinary straight bar. My flat, relatively thin, rectangular or othersuitably shaped bar body 32, held across the strings by the thumb andfirst and second fingers as indicated in Fig. 1, is provided with alateral projection 33 projecting intermediate of its ends from the righthand side, preferably nearer its outer end (Fig. 2), at right angles orotherwise to said body, and raised somewhat from the bodys bottom edge34. This bottom edge makes its usual contact along of all six stringswith an adjacent fret, when my projecting extension is raised bymanually tilting the body as indicated in Fig. 4. This extension is wideenough at its outer end to cover two strings (Fig. 1), and is narrowenough to cover one string only without contact with adjacent strings,in the usual trans verse spacing of said strings. Its outer end 35 ispreferably turned down somewhat and forms a rounded secondary contactbar, parallel to said bottom edge of the body. The length of thisprojecting extension is approximately the distance between two adjacentfrets and spaces the secondary bars from the body accordingly. Saidextension preferably includes a slide 33' carrying said secondary barand given an outward tendency in the fixed portion by a spring 36, tospan the longer spacing of some frets, and is shortened by means of athumb rest 3'! carried by the slide in a slot 38 in the fixed portion.

These contact edges 34 and 35 of the body and secondary barsrespectively, are straight, parallel, and lie in the same common planesubstantially at right angles to the rectangular body 32 as shown; areof unequal length as stated, and are spaced rigidly apart correspondingto the frets brought in contact with the strings by engaging the stringswith said edges, and releasing both the second and third strings, oreither string, by tilting the secondary bar at the extension end aboutthe body edge while contacting all the strings with a fret adjacent tothe body edge.

Hence, by holding the bar body at substantially right angles to thestrings as in Fig. 3, the secondary bar 35 will contact with onestringor two strings as desired-over the next fret and engage them toshorten the vibrating length of the stringor strings-and thus raise thetone.

In combination with the means for varying the tension of the second andthird strings as described in my said prior application, this tone barcontrols the tones of said extended strings, so that the performer canproduce a large number of chords which are not available in the Hawaiianguitar; and can alter chords at will and instantly, and produce allminor chords, all seventh chords, diminished and augmented chords. Thiscombined use of my tension changing means and my tone bar, enables theperformer to alter and play many different chords on each fret;ordinarily in a Hawaiian guitar, only one chord on each fret can beplayed.

For example, by placing my bar body on all the strings at the fifth fretand the secondary bar at end of my said extension on the sixth fret, ofthe first string only, an augmented chord is obtained which is augmentedD.

By placing said body over any fret and the secondary bar on my extensiondown on the first (or the fourth) string, the same augmented chord in adifferent position is obtained.

Further examples are given in my said prior application.

I do not limit the construction of my tone bar used with guitars orsimilar fretted stringed musical instruments, except by the following 5claim.

I claim:

A tone bar comprising a body portion having a string engaging edgeforming a contact bar for all the guitar strings, a secondary bar ex- 10tending laterally from said body portion at substantially right anglesthereto and comprising a fixed member ancl a cooperating sliding membersupported thereby, said sliding member terminating in a stringcontacting surface, resilient 15 means normally and constantly urgingsaid sliding member to its extended position from said body portion, anda manipulating thumb rest on saidislide to manually shorten the spacebetween said contact bar and said secondary bar. 20

CARL TEMPLE SCHRICKEL.

